Chronology
| 1902 | Born 29 March, at Oldham, Lancashire. |
| 1912 | Entered Christ Church Cathedral Choir at Oxford. |
| 1916 | Became an undergraduate at Oxford. |
| 1920 | Left Oxford and began to live in London with the poets, Sacheverell, Osbert, and Edith Sitwell. |
| 1922 | Entertainment Façade first performed; Façade became very popular as a ballet. |
| 1923 | Piano Quartet performed at International Society of Contemporary Music in Salzburg. |
| 1926 | Portsmouth Point performed at ISCM in Zurich; this overture gave Walton an international reputation, especially in America. |
| 1927 | Wrote Sinfonia Concertante. |
| 1929 | Completed Viola Concerto for violist Lionel Tertis. |
| 1931 | Belshazzar's Feast first performed at Leeds Festival, to outstanding reviews. Walton quickly recognized as the bright hope for British music. |
| 1932 | Hamilton Harty commissioned a symphony. |
| 1934 | Composed first film score, for Paul Czinner's Escape Me Never. |
| 1935 | Moved out of the Sitwell home. Finished First Symphony. |
| 1937 | Crown Imperial composed for the coronation of George VI, and In Honour of the City of London for the Leeds Festival. |
| 1939 | Completed Violin Concerto for Jascha Heifetz. |
| 1941 | Upon Walton's being conscripted into the armed forces, the Ministry of Information requested he be kept from military service to write music for patriotic films. |
| 1942 | Wrote scores for films, The Next of Kin, The Foreman Went to France, The First of the Few, and Went the Day Well?. |
| 1943 | Film score for Henry V, the first of many important collaborations with Laurence Olivier. |
| 1945 | Composed the String Quartet No. 2. |
| 1947 | Began work on libretto for the opera Troilus and Cressida with Christopher Hassall. |
| 1948 | Married Susana Gil Passo on an official visit to Argentina. |
| 1951 | Walton knighted. |
| 1953 | Orb and Sceptre and Coronation Te Deum for the coronation of Elizabeth II. |
| 1954 | After nearly eight years of work, Troilus and Cressida finally staged at Covent Garden, to moderate reviews. |
| 1955 | Received honorary doctorates from Universities of Cambridge and London. |
| 1956 | Completed Cello Concerto for Gregor Piatigorsky, his first major orchestral work in eighteen years. For tax purposes, officially considered British citizen resident abroad, at La Mortella, on Ischia. |
| 1958 | Partita for Orchestra premiered by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. |
| 1959 | Composed song-cycle Anon. in love for guitarist Julian Bream and tenor Peter Pears. |
| 1960 | Second Symphony premiered at the Edinburgh Festival. |
| 1961 | Completed Gloria for the Huddersfield Choral Society. |
| 1962 | Variations on a Theme of Hindemith for the Royal Philharmonic Society. |
| 1966 | Completed one-act "extravaganza," The Bear, for the Aldeburgh Festival. |
| 1969 | Composed Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten and Three Sisters, his last film score. |
| 1972 | Major celebrations for seventieth birthday. |
| 1974 | Sketches for a Third Symphony are destroyed. |
| 1976 | Troilus and Cressida revived at Covent Garden. |
| 1979 | As Walton became increasingly ill, he arranged Façade 2 and began again a Third Symphony for André Previn. |
| 1981 | Last orchestral work, Prologo e fantasia, premiered by Mstislav Rostropovich. |
| 1983 | Walton died on 8 March at La Mortella. |